Explore the real-world places that appear in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Redriff, Lilliput, Mildendo, Brobdingnag, Lorbrulgrud and 7 more.
Gulliver's home port in London
Lemuel Gulliver begins and ends each voyage from his home in Redriff, where he practices as a ship's surgeon. He returns here between adventures to his wife Mary and children, often struggling to readjust to normal human society.
Rotherhithe was a major shipbuilding and maritime center in Swift's time, home to many sailors and ship captains. The area was known for its connection to global trade and exploration.
Modern Rotherhithe remains a Thames-side district with maritime heritage, featuring converted warehouses and the historic Mayflower pub. The area retains its connection to London's seafaring past.
Visit: Mayflower Pub (restaurant)
Land of six-inch tall people
Gulliver washes ashore after shipwreck and awakens tied down by hundreds of tiny people. He becomes embroiled in their petty court politics, wars over egg-cracking methods, and eventually flees after being accused of treason by the jealous Emperor.
The Indian Ocean was a major shipping lane for European colonial powers, with frequent shipwrecks on uncharted islands and reefs around the Indonesian archipelago.
The waters southwest of Sumatra remain busy shipping lanes, with numerous small islands that could match Swift's description of Lilliput's isolated location.
Capital city of Lilliput
The magnificent capital where Gulliver meets the Emperor of Lilliput and performs for the court, including his famous feat of straddling the city's main street. The imperial palace and temples showcase Lilliputian architecture at its finest.
Represents the grand capitals of European colonial territories in Southeast Asia, where elaborate ceremonies and court protocols were maintained despite the remote locations.
The area would correspond to the developed regions of western Java, with modern cities that blend traditional Indonesian culture with metropolitan development.
Land of giants
Gulliver becomes a curiosity among 60-foot tall giants, first exploited by a farmer as a carnival attraction, then becoming a court entertainment for the King and Queen. He describes European civilization to the horrified Brobdingnagian King, who calls humans 'the most pernicious race of odious vermin.'
The Pacific Northwest coast was being explored by European navigators seeking the Northwest Passage, with reports of indigenous peoples and unexplored territories matching Swift's remote setting.
Southeast Alaska features rugged coastlines, dense forests, and indigenous communities, maintaining much of the wild character Swift described for Brobdingnag.
Capital of Brobdingnag
The massive capital where Gulliver performs before the King and Queen of Brobdingnag, kept in a specially constructed box-apartment. Here he engages in philosophical discussions with the King about government and human nature.
Represents the concept of undiscovered civilizations in the Arctic regions that captivated 18th-century European imagination during the age of northern exploration.
The location corresponds to interior Alaska, with its vast wilderness and indigenous cultures that maintain traditional relationships with the land.
Flying island of scientists
Gulliver is rescued by the floating island of absent-minded mathematicians and scientists obsessed with theoretical knowledge but utterly impractical. He observes their ridiculous experiments and witnesses how they oppress the land of Balnibarbi below.
The central plains represent the vast interior spaces that 18th-century Europeans imagined could harbor unknown civilizations, far from coastal exploration routes.
The American Midwest features the kind of expansive agricultural landscape that Swift envisioned being controlled by the flying island's shadow.
Ruined land below Laputa
Gulliver descends to this mainland territory and finds it devastated by impractical scientific experiments imposed by Laputa's academy. The land lies waste while the inhabitants pursue absurd projects like extracting sunlight from cucumbers.
Represents colonial territories subjected to impractical policies imposed by distant imperial powers, reflecting 18th-century concerns about misgovernment.
Central California's agricultural valleys demonstrate the productive potential that Swift imagined being wasted by misguided scientific interference.
Academy of impractical science
Gulliver visits the Academy where scientists conduct absurd experiments including attempts to extract sunlight from cucumbers, reduce human waste to food, and teach mathematics through skin absorption. Lord Munodi shows him the contrast between ruined experimental lands and his own traditionally managed estate.
Represents the establishment of European-style institutions of learning in colonial settings, often disconnected from local conditions and needs.
The Silicon Valley area embodies the kind of technological innovation center that Swift might have satirized, where theoretical advances sometimes outpace practical application.
Island of sorcerers
Gulliver encounters an island of sorcerers who can summon the dead for conversations. He speaks with historical figures including Alexander the Great, Caesar, and Aristotle, learning uncomfortable truths about history and human nature from those who lived it.
The Mariana Islands were stopover points for Spanish galleons trading between the Americas and Asia, representing the mysterious Pacific islands European navigators encountered.
Guam remains a strategic Pacific location, bridging Eastern and Western cultures much as Glubbdubdrib served as a bridge between past and present.
Kingdom of the Struldbrugs
Gulliver discovers the Struldbrugs, immortal beings who initially excite his envy until he learns they continue aging forever, becoming increasingly decrepit, senile, and miserable. The revelation destroys his romantic notions about eternal life.
Japan in Swift's time was largely closed to European contact, known mainly through Dutch trading reports, making it an ideal setting for Swift's exploration of alien social customs.
Modern Japan, with its aging population and advanced healthcare extending life spans, eerily echoes Swift's concerns about the potential burdens of extreme longevity.
Country ruled by rational horses
Gulliver discovers a land where rational horses (Houyhnhnms) rule over savage human-like beasts called Yahoos. He lives among the horses for years, learning their philosophy of reason and truth, until they exile him for being too similar to the despised Yahoos.
Australia was known to Europeans only through limited Dutch exploration, making it the perfect setting for Swift's most radical reversal of natural order and civilization.
Australia's unique ecosystem and indigenous cultures provide a real-world parallel to Swift's imagined inversion of European assumptions about nature and civilization.
Domain of savage human-beasts
Gulliver first encounters the Yahoos when they attack him, and throughout his stay he struggles with the horrible recognition that he physically resembles these creatures more than the noble Houyhnhnms. The Yahoos represent humanity's animal nature without the restraint of reason.
The Australian interior represented the ultimate frontier wilderness to 18th-century Europeans, a place where civilization might break down entirely.
The Australian outback remains one of the world's most challenging environments, where human survival depends on adaptation to harsh natural conditions.
More by Jonathan Swift: All Jonathan Swift books